David Grajal » life

Beautiful Pavia

David — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:18:17 +0000

When I woke up in Milan the entire city was white. It snowed during the entire night. And it didn’t stop. By the time I went to Pavia and I went for a walk it was snowing a lot. Another misconception… I thought Italy was as warm and hot as Spain!

Reading the Wikitravel (Using Oxigenguide, a must have in the cell phone for travelers) I realized that Milan does have nightlife but it is not in the Statione Centrale area. Well, maybe in another occasion I will be able to experience it. What I’ve already tried is the Italian aperitivo. Between 19h and 21h lots of bars in Northern Italy have a buffet with fast food, pasta, rice and small snacks.

You only need to have one drink to have access to the buffet and you can eat as much as you want. This is such a beautiful idea I don’t understand why it does not exist in Spain. Owners are happy because bars are full, customers are happy because they feel a great value for their money. I feel the idea is specially good for students because they can eat for cheap, something important in otherwise expensive Milan.

Jumping@Pavia

Couchsurfing in Milan

David — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:57:21 +0000

When I landed in Bergamo last evening and I was surprised because two reasons. First, it was freezing cold. As much as Germany. And second, the entire city looked dark and deserted. Where was the people? I was expecting lots of Italians having fun in the city center!

I was lucky because I had a couch in the city center. Giancarlo Rosso was my host, a really nice Italian guy that studied Arabic culture and language for pleasure. We had a long conversation till late at night speaking about the differences between northern and southern Italians and beautiful places he visited in northern Africa and middle east. He has traveled a lot in the area so it was quite a revelatory experience. I didn’t know the sand is pink in the Moroccan deserts and now I’m already planning to see them with my own eyes in the next weeks!

Couchsurfing in Milan

Leaving Germany

David — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:00:32 +0000

On 4th of February, 2010 I left Germany for good. This is the last post I will write from this city. This is what I wrote when I first arrived at Würzburg. At that time I could not imagine how much this city was going to change me. I feel different because I changed a lot personally and professionally. I’m more confident and more caring. I’ve met a lot of people that have influenced me. I’m still as open minded as before but I’m stating to forge my own oppinions. I guess I’m just becoming an adult and this is time to start a new stage in my life.

My lovely apartment and my friends stayed in Würzburg. I spent my last days in the city saying goodbye to the city and the people and just having plain fun. It has been another hard goodbye, leaving the city when I felt most comfortable. I will always remember the places, the smiles, the people, the jokes and the amazing good times I had there.

The next time I will be in the country I will be just a tourist. This is a weird feeling for me because I really think of Würzburg as my home. Thanks everybody for making it possible.

Leipzig 2009

David — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:41:26 +0000

I visited this beautiful German city in June. Here in Leipzig there are no traditional houses made entirely of wood and even if the city have a river, it doesn’t have a castle. That’s a massive difference in comparation with Bayern. When I visited Leipzig, the city was specially colorful because taken for the biggest national Goth festival. It was really interesting to see the extremely elaborated clothes goth people use. There are complete goth families where everybody, including seniors and children wear goth clothes!

Jumping in Leipzig

In Leipzig I met Carolin and together we practiced tightrope walking on a park. It was my first experience doing this stuff and I need to say that it was a lot of fun, but I still need to practice a lot more: I could barely stay longer than 2 seconds on the rope before falling!

First time doing tightrope walking

Goth girls

Introducing my first DSLR

David — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:47:45 +0000

Recently I bought the cheapest DSLR camera in the market, a Nikon D40. I wanted to learn basic photography and the only way to do so is to actually go out and take lots of pictures. You can learn photographic composition with the camera integrated in your cellphone, but to actually play with the light you need the correct gear.

These are some test pictures I took on my first week. There is such a massive improvement over my crappy compact camera that I wonder how come I didn’t bought a DSLR before. Now and I have the basic gear and I only need to improve so I ask for tips and tricks to every photographer I met!

Wide lenses test

Macro test

Sunset light test

Night photography test (yep, I'm still missing a small tripod)

Chennai, the end of the adventure

David — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:56:19 +0000

I didn’t visit Chennai when I first landed there at the beginning of my Indian adventure because we prefer to just rest and hung out for a few days. But on my last day in India I flew from Madurai to Chennai with time enough to explore the city before taking my flight to Europe. I arrived at lunch time and the flight to Frankfurt was in the late evening so I had time to visit the more important landmarks in the city. I met Dimitry in the airport and we explore together the city in a few hours. On the airport we took the best Autoricksack in India, new vehicle with a big pair of speakers and a subwoofer. No audio system, I guess the driver spent all the money on the speakers and he forgot to buy the radio

Driving the best Autorickshaw in the world

We saw the main monuments of the city, the beautiful beach were locals hung out and we went to a real Indian market to buy the same stuff this people buy. Chennai were my last hours in Indian soil. At that time I was so sick of South Indian food I just wanted to go to the airport and eat crappy Western food!

Rameshwaram and Danushkodi

David — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:55:21 +0000

Rameshwaram is the eastern most tip of India. Rameshwaran is actually an island connected to the mainland by a 20 years old bridge over the Pamban channel and is less than 40 kilometers from the Jaffna Peninsula, Sri Lanka. It is considered to be one of the holiest places in India to Hindus. A lot of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees come to Rameshwaram on small boats sailing through the gulf of Mannar.

Monk?

Rameshwaran has one of the most important and oldest hindu temples in India. I really enjoyed going to Hindu temples because they are full of locals praying, while when you go to a temple in Europe it’s full of tourists! Hindu temples are really old, and are also special in the way they are built. Even the small ones seem very peaceful yet are still beautiful with the statues, the art, the paintings on the walls and ceilings and the flowers and colorful sarees on the statues.

Rameswaran

The most eastern tip of Rameshwaram is Danushkodi. The people who live here are fisherman who reside in straw houses in little villages. You can only go there on a an industrial truck since there are no roads, just sand. The whole area is a beach with the ocean on both sides. Danushkodi is full of remains, specially the big remain of a catholic church. Danushkodi it’s simple life at its best!

Danushkodi, close to the poing in which the finger of India try to touch sri lanka

Madurai

David — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:46:40 +0000

Madurai is known as the city of temples and for a good reason: There are lots of small hindu temples and there is a massive one. The big Madurai temple is one of the most important peregrinage centers for hindu people. Walking around this temple was like being inside a tomb raider videogame or a Indiana Jones movie. There were almost no tourists and it was so interesting to visit the temple on the company of locals that where actually praying to their gods. I loved it. I was even blessed by an elephant!

Receiving the blessing from the elephant

We couch surfed in Madurai for 2 days with Ragu, who let us stay at his guesthouse even though he wasn’t there to meet us. Not only did we have a place to stay without the host, we also got full use of his personal driver! It was the real royal Indian experience. At first Ann and I felt quite uncomfortable with people addressing us as sirs and madams but sightseeing Madurai in an A/C car was definitely something we got used to. After being treated like royalty in Allepey, it felt just as good to let the trend continue even though at moments we did feel guilty for feeling so spoiled.

Madurai Hindu temples

Houseboat in Kerala Backwaters

David — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:42:02 +0000

According to the Lonely Planet, do a night on a houseboat is a must do in India and one the ten things to do before you die.

Houseboat in Allepey

For 90 EUR we got a one bedroom houseboat equipped with 3 men for 24 hours. These men drove the boat, cooked us food (lunch, tea, dinner and breakfast) and took care of us as if we were royalty. They drove us to the backwaters of Allepey for about 6 hours. It was a beautiful cruise where you pass by locals villages and watch as daily life unfolds. Women were washing their clothes, children were bathing and playing, men were drinking toddy and chilling out. Meanwhile I was reading and staring out at nature from the terrace of the boat. Life doesn’t get any sweeter than this.

Under a mosquito net, for the first time in my life

At dinner time they stopped the boat for the night by a little village. We took a small canoe to explore the small canals. We did this as the sun was setting and it was stunning!

Kerala backwaters sunset

Beautiful sunset

Levantandonos y preparando el camino de regreso

Relaxing on the boat

This was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. It’s very relaxing and you get to absorb the most beautiful scenery and the local culture. It’s again something that can’t be explained, it’s something to be felt and experienced.

Houseboats

Cochin

David — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:26:56 +0000

The state of Kerela is known as God’s own country due to its lush greenery and beautiful backwaters. Ann joined me on the club of “I don’t understand what’s going on” because in Kerala they speak Malaylam which is similar to Tamil but different. Same same, but different as they say in Asia. Our plan was to stay one night in Cochin but somehow it turned into two, due to laziness, the fact that we somehow managed to gain an extra day on our itinerary and that luckily we met some couchsurfers who were able to give us the local feeling.

Cochin

My first time in an hindu temple

Fort Cochin is infamous for its Portuguese and Dutch influence which is still evident in its architecture. The houses and churches especially. It’s actually an island with bridges and ferry connections to the main land area known as Erankulum We also had a chance to watch the traditional Kerelan dance – Kathakali. There are a lot of similarities to the Tamil traditional dance of Bharathanatyam such as the hand gestures and the facial expressions, but Kathakali is much slower paced and it always tells a story which can go on for hours. We saw a performance specifically for tourists so it was only one hour long and the dance was completely explained making it much more enjoyable. It was beautiful!